Latest / Transformational Meditation Podcast / Love Your Love Muscle - Relationships and Technology

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Love Your Love Muscle - Relationships and Technology · Transformational Meditation Podcast

0:30
Okay. Welcome, everybody. Welcome back to our biweekly podcast,
0:34
Love Your Love Muscle. And as you can see, I'm not in nature.
0:37
I'm at the office, and we have Christina back.
0:41
I hope you remember Christina from the last time we talked with her.
0:46
She has an organization called Way to Yourself,
0:50
and she was on the show around somewhere
0:53
in March, episode 311, if you want to look back
0:58
through our podcast, and that podcast was called "Finding Your Way Back to
1:02
Yourself." It was about mindfulness, emotional
1:05
awareness, and breathing to find your
1:09
inner clarity and wisdom again. And you might
1:13
remember that
1:15
last week or last two weeks, we talked about that as well,
1:19
about finding yourself in order to love yourself.
1:23
So if you want to go to that podcast session, to that episode,
1:28
look back to our previous episode,
1:32
previous podcast about
1:34
finding yourself
1:36
in order to love yourself.
1:39
A little bit about love and relationships we're going to talk about
1:43
to Christina today.
1:45
But first, a little service announcement.
1:49
For those that are in France and are in the area of
1:53
Beaune,
1:54
I will be there the 20th of June
1:58
with an outdoor session in the park, and the park is called Parc de
2:02
la Bouzaize.
2:05
I hope I pronounced it correctly. That's the 20th of June at 6:00
2:08
PM. If my flights and everything
2:12
are staying online, don't get canceled, I will thus
2:16
be in Beaune.
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Lovely heart-focused meditation in the park, a little bit like we did
2:22
last year? Yeah, last year in
2:26
Luxembourg,
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a meditation in the park as well. So if you want to join,
2:31
I will post the contact information, of course, online.
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Just follow along and you can register for that session.
2:41
Also, before we get started,
2:43
as always, when we have a guest, and out of respect for our guest, I want you
2:47
to stay online and stay focused because our
2:51
guests always have wonderful,
2:54
important information that you can learn from, that you
2:58
can use in everyday life.
3:01
And as you know, I'm not a big fan of social media when it
3:05
comes to how it affects our attention span.
3:09
So we start off with a little exercise to get you focused,
3:12
get you concentrated, and that you are able to pick up all
3:16
the wonderful information that Christina is presenting
3:20
to us today. So just sit up straight
3:24
and take a nice deep inhale through your nose.
3:28
Fill those lungs with air, and breathe out through your mouth.
3:33
And then lower your shoulders, loosen your jaw, relax.
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Feel yourself getting centered.
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Get back to yourself.
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Be in the present moment. Take another nice deep inhale through your nose.
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And out through your mouth.
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And breathe calmly
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and deeply.
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And just by changing your breathing pattern, you already tell to your
4:02
body that it is in a safe place.
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Feel yourself getting more centered, more in this moment.
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You can close your eyes if you want to.
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And put your hand on your chest right there where your heart is,
4:19
and imagine that you're breathing through your heart.
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Just a few breaths. Just imagine breathing through your heart.
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Just to calm our nervous system down,
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to relax our body, relax our mind.
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As you breathe slowly and
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deeply through your heart,
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set the intention that you are going to focus,
4:54
that you are present
4:57
with Christina and me
5:00
during this episode,
5:03
aware
5:06
and able to pick up every detail, all the
5:10
knowledge that Christina is going to
5:12
give us.
5:16
Beautiful.
5:19
Take a nice deep inhale again.
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And out through your mouth.
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Relax. Open your eyes if you had them closed.
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And just feel how more present you are already.
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All right. Forget everything around you.
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Focus. This is important information, useful information, and it
5:42
benefits you. It's free,
5:46
and it's good.
5:48
All right. So
5:51
to continue with some service announcements, Christina just told me
5:55
that every Sunday,
5:58
her organization, Way to Yourself,
6:01
has an online Zoom meeting at 8:00 PM Central European
6:04
TimeAnd of course, how to get in touch with
6:08
Christina and join that meeting, you will get to know in
6:12
the description of this podcast.
6:15
Make sure at least to send a message that you are joining so she
6:19
can get back to you in case something happens, and she has to postpone
6:23
the meeting or
6:27
cancel it or whatever. The meeting is about
6:31
ancient Tibetan relaxation.
6:35
So
6:36
that's
6:37
pretty interesting, right? Especially those that have--
6:41
are following along with the podcast, you know that I'm talking a lot about
6:45
Tibetan, about Buddhist.
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So
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it most likely resonates with you that are
6:53
watching or listening
6:55
as well. So
6:57
hi, Christina.
6:58
Sorry for talking so much.
7:02
Hello.
7:03
Hello.
7:03
Thank you so much, yeah, for this possibility
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today and to be here
7:09
for, yeah, sharing and giving some
7:13
insight. Thank you so much for organizing this beautiful
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podcast.
7:18
My pleasure. And it's good to have you back on board.
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And you have always so much interesting to say and so much knowledge
7:25
to share. So, and we talked a little bit beforehand, we
7:29
beforehand, and we are going to talk about relationships.
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And, as we had just did a
7:37
short session or a short technique to stay
7:42
focused, and like I said, people's attention span is getting shorter
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and shorter,
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the more we are online and connected to the world through the
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internet. How does that affect relationships?
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Do you notice something like that when you have clients or
7:58
workshops about relationships?
8:02
Thank you so much for this question.
8:05
In fact, our online life, how I call
8:09
it, affects a lot our private life as well,
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our relationships. It doesn't matter if it is the relationship to a
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partner or to a family member, the
8:20
family itself, for sure. And,
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yeah, there are some habits
8:28
already to see and, as well, of course,
8:31
challenges which are appearing.
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Do you have some examples of what you
8:38
see in, for example, personal relationships, people that come with a
8:42
partner to see you and want some advice?
8:45
What do you
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see is the trend there?
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Well, it often happens that people, after their work, they come
8:54
back home. If they are living together, then one
8:58
maybe expects they have the evening
9:01
together.
9:02
They can share the dinner. They speak about the day, whatever
9:06
happened. And the other one maybe, is not
9:10
aware of this and,
9:13
just think, as it happens often that people,
9:17
they have in their mind,
9:19
being online, maybe in social media, it brings you
9:23
relaxation, but it is not, of course.
9:26
And so when one is with the phone, with the social
9:30
media,
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it can affect, of course, the other person in the relationship a lot.
9:37
And instead of relaxation, it can bring a lot
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of challenges at the end.
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I think that's interesting that people want to go online and browse the internet
9:48
out of relaxation.
9:50
Mm-hmm.
9:50
But when you think about it, if-- I think people should try one
9:54
time, how we have been so addicted to
9:58
the internet, to being online.
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I compare it to smoking cigarettes.
10:04
Mm-hmm.
10:05
Some people smoke cigarettes because it relaxes them.
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But all
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the
10:13
ingredients in the cigarettes are not relaxing at all.
10:17
Mm-hmm.
10:17
They're not. It's just a habit or that people think they
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are being-- they're getting relaxed smoking cigarettes.
10:25
And I think the same is happening with our online presence.
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Like, oh, we have to be online, scroll through our Instagram feed, and
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relax with that. But people should notice how
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agitated you can get, how triggered you can get from
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especially social media posts. And that's also the reason why
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social media companies exist. They want to trigger you to
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do things, to think about things. They want to make you think in a
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certain direction.
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And if people would--
10:56
Do you recommend that if you meet a couple
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that's in such a situation, do you say to them like,
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"You know what?
11:08
Arrange for one evening
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this week to not be online and sit
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together,
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read a book or talk about something, maybe play a board game or
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watch a movie that you both like." Do you recommend something like that?
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And,
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do you ask them to notice the difference in how they feel?
11:32
It happens, yeah. That I recommend to do like this, that they have
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an agreement, to spend the time together.
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However, it looks like if they really just have a
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conversation and talking about
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their everyday life, or if they have a game, a board game,
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as you called.
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But often I give, as well, the advice that people
11:56
should go more often in nature.
11:58
Yeah. Mm.
11:59
They should go out in nature.
12:02
Go on a walk together.
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Yeah.
12:04
Yeah.
12:05
Yes.
12:06
I love that. That's good. Yes. Oh, nature is-- I was
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just thinking about it likeWhen you were talking, I was thinking, how do I actually
12:13
relax? But I relaxed yesterday, for example.
12:17
After work, I went out into the garden and cleared the
12:21
garden for some rubble and some twigs and everything that was laying
12:24
around still, and it's working. But it felt so relaxed.
12:28
But just because you're out in nature, fresh air.
12:32
Yeah.
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Even if you do something, if you even,
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I guess maybe if a couple would fancy go jogging
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together, running together, it would be just as relaxing, I
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guess.
12:44
For sure.
12:45
Mm-hmm.
12:46
Yeah.
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It can have a very good effect on their own
12:51
life and of course on their relationship as well.
12:55
Mm-hmm.
12:56
How does that affect
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family life?
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I guess in the same way. If you have a family with kids, for example, and the kids
13:07
are always in their bedroom where they have a computer and they're
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always online and gaming. Is that the same thing?
13:17
Well, it's similar. If they have their own bedroom and they are
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gaming there, then it's already good luck, let's say,
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because very often it happens that families are together on a
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table. For example, in the
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lunchtime or in the dinner time
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and somebody is online. During the meal,
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they don't
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speak with each other. They are hanging around on
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their phones and
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doing games or messages, and of course, it brings
13:54
something with it.
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If they are playing in their room, then it's already different.
14:00
But,
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let's say I'm, for example, a generation, I guess you're probably
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similar.
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I grew up in my childhood, in my youth years,
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let's say, without the technique
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to be online and we really spend a lot of time in
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nature. We were playing outside,
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and the life was different, of course, than it is
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today.
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I see that people, they are getting more maybe
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lazy, let's say,
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because when you're just laying around, sitting around doing the
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games,
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in one moment, you don't have the wish to go outside and to
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move, to do something actively,
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and that's one point. And of course,
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I see, at least in our country,
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it's like I'm based in Germany right
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now, and I see that people are very much isolated.
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Why? Because everybody thinks I have the friends online, I
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can do communicate online. But in
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reality, people are very lonely. They are sitting at home very
15:15
often alone,
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and the connections are far away online.
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And when we close the online system, when we just
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shut it off, then there are not so many friends around
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anymore, and they realize that they are
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alone. And,
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yeah, so this is also how it affects our life.
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Even families. A lot of families, they are separated,
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they are splitted because children, in one moment, they leave
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the city, they go far away for study,
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maybe never come back after because they find their partner, their
15:54
love in another city or even another country.
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And so,
15:59
yeah, even families, they are splitted and
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it brings changes. A lot of changes. Yeah.
16:08
That's true.
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That's true for my life as well. I
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originally grew up in the Netherlands and moved to Norway for
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work.
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Okay.
16:20
And then right away, you
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build up a new social
16:27
circle, of course.
16:30
But families get splitted. I talk to my dad
16:34
every week, but it's different than visiting him every
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week, right? It's online, but still.
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And on the other hand, it's nice that we have this technology to stay in
16:46
touch, but it's not the same. And
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funny enough, though, you really learn who your best friends
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are.
16:55
Mm-hmm.
16:56
I haven't seen one of my best friends in 18 years until
17:00
last year.
17:02
Mm-hmm.
17:02
And it was like we've never been apart.
17:06
Understand.
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We
17:07
met. He had a wife, his kids, et cetera.
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So a lot of things have changed. And the only contact we had
17:14
was maybe twice a year,
17:17
a card. A Christmas card or an email, like, "How are you doing?" This and
17:21
that. But the moment we met again, we went out to dinner, went back
17:25
to his house, and we just started talking and talking.
17:27
It was like we never were apart. It was such an interesting
17:31
experience.
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And later
17:35
on, I
17:38
talked to a colleague of mine who is originally from
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Denmark. He also moved from Denmark to Norway for work.
17:46
And he said, "Oh, it's so difficult to have real best
17:50
friends in
17:52
Norway." And I
17:55
was thinking about, yeah, but how do we make friends now?
17:59
Now we are older.
18:01
Mm-hmm.
18:02
Because I had the same, I won't say issue, but the same
18:06
experience. Like, yeah, you get acquainted with people and you
18:10
become friendly and friends. But that really best
18:13
friend relationship... isn't
18:17
there with
18:19
now we have moved to another country.
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And I
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don't know what your opinion is, but my thought about was
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if the people you grow up with,
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for example, through school especially,
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or your study
18:36
on university, when there is this period in your life where you
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experience
18:42
growing up with other people, then
18:46
you get
18:48
become really best friends with some of them.
18:52
But the connection is there because you've experienced together something,
18:56
like growing up together. Well, when you move as an
18:59
adult to another country,
19:02
there isn't like you're already grown up, you're already
19:06
there, you just go to work there. So the kind of
19:09
relationships or the kind of friendships aren't that deep
19:13
as when you
19:16
are, for example, 12 years old, up to 20
19:20
maybe, and really grow up with somebody.
19:23
Mm-hmm.
19:24
What are
19:25
your thoughts on that? Then we're talking about
19:29
relationships between friends, right?
19:32
Mm-hmm.
19:33
I think in the past it was more
19:38
deep connections because as you told, when you see
19:42
somebody physically and when you are really connected long time,
19:46
you experience a lot of things together.
19:49
Mm-hmm.
19:49
You are going through
19:52
challenges together, different situations,
19:56
the good moments also, like when there is
19:59
somebody,
20:01
one of them have problems, challenges, the other friend is
20:04
there to help, to support.
20:07
And so this connection is real. This connection can be very
20:11
deep. And I just see now when we have the
20:15
online connections, the online
20:18
relationships, even like a lot of friends are just online.
20:23
If somebody don't like you, they just click and you are out of
20:27
their life. They take you away, and that's
20:31
it. So,
20:34
I don't know if it is only my feeling or if it is really like this,
20:37
that the things are more on the
20:42
top, like the relationships are not so deep anymore,
20:46
are not so grounded as it was in the past.
20:49
But
20:50
they meet each other, they share things, and if
20:54
somebody don't like what the other person is telling, they just click
20:58
and the person is out of their life.
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And at the end, people stay alone. They are really lonely,
21:06
and
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yeah, basically,
21:10
the situation somehow changed.
21:13
Should we be taught social etiquette online as well?
21:17
Because, I
21:19
recognize a lot of what you say, and I see it in my own practice
21:23
as well. If I get people through my
21:27
meditation classes, offline meditation classes, like it's not
21:31
even online-
21:32
Mm-hmm
21:32
... the moment I say something that is not that they
21:36
misunderstand or I say it's a little bit wrong,
21:40
and they kind of feel
21:45
offended by it,
21:48
they quit. It's like the cancel culture like people call it, right?
21:51
There's just like, "No, it's not even talking about it." Like, "Oh, I feel offended
21:55
or anything like that." It's like, "Hmm, I didn't like this.
21:57
I never come back." "I don't come back anymore."
22:01
And this is something we have taken over from
22:05
our online culture, the way we interact online, because it's exactly
22:09
like you say, if you don't like somebody, oh, just what,
22:13
I think they call it ghosting in the modern language now.
22:16
You just cancel them. You just block them.
22:19
Yeah. Exactly.
22:20
You don't talk about it anymore. That's not the way people
22:24
should
22:26
communicate with each other, I guess. I guess? I know.
22:30
Yeah.
22:31
It's so offending. Do these people that do that,
22:35
do they understand what this does to
22:39
the other person?
22:40
Mm-hmm.
22:41
If I would just say, "Oh, I don't like what Christina
22:45
is saying now," right? "Okay, I'm not going to contact her anymore
22:49
because I don't want to record any podcast with her anymore." And
22:53
I don't say that to you.
22:55
I just don't contact you anymore. That is hurting to
22:59
you.
23:00
Mm-hmm.
23:00
Do people really understand what they're doing by canceling someone like
23:04
that?
23:06
No, they don't understand. Not at all.
23:09
I think some, they already forgot that we are human beings, that we
23:13
are alive. We are living in a time when the
23:17
technology progress is very fast.
23:20
We are living in the time of the AI and
23:24
not everybody is a robot. We are still
23:28
alive. And so,
23:31
I think they are not aware what they are doing, and that we have
23:35
feelings, we have emotions, and it's affecting, it's like
23:39
doing something with a person. And I guess some, they
23:43
stay really alone. They remain alone and
23:47
they cultivate a lot of sadness, maybe get even
23:51
into depression because of such situations.
23:56
And others, maybe they go to negative emotions,
24:02
like they're getting angry or other situations
24:05
happening. Things which also were not there before,
24:09
but now it's coming to the life and very much affecting.
24:14
And, yeah, I think we should really think about our way
24:17
of life, our lifestyle,
24:20
andWhere we want to see us in a few
24:24
years.
24:26
Where we want to see our relationships in a few years.
24:30
If I have a partner around and I have a physical contact
24:34
and I have to
24:37
go through a lot of challenges, like a really difficult
24:40
situation, it brings,
24:43
I guess, a couple more close. There is a more deep
24:46
connection.
24:48
You understand already the other person on another level,
24:52
let's say. It's just not something on the top,
24:55
like
24:57
when you think, "Okay, today it's my partner.
24:59
Tomorrow I can quit and go out of this relationship," but you
25:03
already think differently.
25:06
And
25:07
already, like in ancient times, people they told when you're facing the
25:11
challenges, it always change your life.
25:15
And of course, if you have a person close and when you're facing the
25:19
challenges together,
25:21
it brings somehow closer.
25:23
Yeah.
25:24
Yeah.
25:25
Exactly. And
25:27
in today's date, you touched upon AI.
25:31
It's kind of scary that
25:34
people
25:37
get close
25:40
feeling-wise and emotion-wise with an AI chatbot
25:44
compared to a real human being because the
25:48
AI is acting-
25:50
Mm-hmm
25:50
... or answering more to your liking than a human
25:54
would do.
25:55
Mm-hmm.
25:56
It's concerning. Did we
26:00
become so bad in maintaining relationships
26:04
that even a computer program can do it better than
26:08
us?
26:10
I'm like, "Hmm."
26:12
Yeah.
26:13
There's something concerning there.
26:16
Mm-hmm.
26:16
And
26:18
I think we even talked about it
26:20
in a previous
26:23
podcast recording about politicians,
26:27
when if you compare how politicians debated each other
26:31
on television two decades ago compared to
26:35
today, it's not normal today.
26:39
They debated previously like
26:42
grown-up people. They didn't like each other, and
26:46
they didn't agree, but at least they got their points
26:50
across and respected each other's situation and each
26:54
other's points. And now it's like a kindergarten.
26:59
They are
27:01
trying to not talk about the subject, but about their personal lives
27:04
and everything they do wrong. It's
27:08
completely changed how we interact with each other
27:11
and behave around each other and treat each
27:15
other. It's becoming more and more,
27:18
I would say, almost aggressive and with less and less respect.
27:22
And that's also what we see online.
27:23
We talked about people just, "Okay, I will block you because I
27:27
don't like you anymore," instead of just saying, "You know what?
27:31
I didn't like what you said there.
27:33
Did you mean it really that way?" Talk about it.
27:36
Mm-hmm.
27:37
Talk about it, because you both grow with that.
27:41
Yeah. It's
27:43
concerning.
27:46
But I guess that's also so nice why you do these courses
27:50
and workshops and have clients to help them
27:54
get past that and get back to being
27:58
more human, I would almost say.
28:01
Mm-hmm.
28:05
Yeah. I think we really need to think about
28:09
the relationships, how we want to have them, and
28:13
you are talking about a very important topic about the AI
28:17
that people talk right now with the chatbot.
28:20
Even
28:21
I see, for example, in my life, when I write a message
28:25
somewhere, when you have the contact
28:29
form, let's say a company or an organization, and they
28:33
do the advertisement, "You can write us, chat us,"
28:38
and you send a message, but you see already that's not the
28:42
answer coming from a person who is writing the answer, but it's just
28:46
automatically from the system. AI is sending the message,
28:50
and
28:53
for me, it feels
28:56
somehow sad, I would say.
28:59
When you really expect a person who is sending at least some
29:03
individual answer on your question,
29:05
really see your question or your
29:09
situation and answers, but it's not.
29:12
You already get the standard answer
29:16
for everybody. And
29:18
so,
29:20
yeah, we should ask where all this should lead to,
29:24
where we are going to.
29:27
Please don't
29:30
misunderstand. I like the technical process a lot.
29:34
I value it a lot, the AI, the social
29:38
media, everything, because it connects us as well.
29:43
But in the same moment, it depends on how we are using it.
29:48
Like how much time we
29:51
spend online, how much time we spend maybe
29:55
offline to share our contacts, to
30:00
be with our contacts, to keep the relationships
30:04
alive.
30:06
I think a lot back to my youth years,
30:10
because you had friends in school, for example,
30:14
and you did already the appointment.
30:16
You told the friends in the morning during the lessons,
30:20
"Okay, let's meet in the afternoon after the homework
30:24
somewhere." You had a meeting point,
30:27
and you had to be thereNobody had a mobile phone
30:31
to send a WhatsApp message to cancel everything because
30:35
if you had this appointment, you go there.
30:38
And in our times, when I see the young people now, they have their
30:42
phones, they are chatting, they are sending the messages, they
30:46
cancel their relationships online.
30:49
So really, the time, they changed a lot, of course. Yeah.
30:54
Yeah.
30:56
Like you said, technology is wonderful because it makes, for example, this
31:00
possible.
31:00
Mm-hmm.
31:02
And also in producing our content, I use AI, but you
31:06
will never hear me talk from an AI script.
31:10
I like that it comes with some ideas.
31:13
It helps me in my creative process.
31:16
But
31:17
when you go to YouTube right now, there's people
31:21
talking like an AI, real people, because they just read
31:25
from a script that the AI has created. That's not true.
31:29
I don't like that at all. I like it when a people says "Uh" a lot,
31:32
like they're thinking, instead of cutting it out.
31:36
That's real.
31:39
Mm-hmm.
31:39
Like this interview as well,
31:42
these recordings, I barely edit them because I want it to
31:46
be real.
31:47
Mm-hmm.
31:48
I really, when we only cut out things that aren't important, like,
31:52
oh, now we're totally off subject, then I cut it
31:56
out.
31:57
But the way we do our
32:00
conversation, the way I seeking for words,
32:05
I leave that in because it makes it real.
32:08
It makes the real human connection.
32:09
It makes it better to understand as well because you know
32:13
what's being said in a certain way.
32:16
Mm-hmm.
32:17
And if we all start to talk like a robot-
32:21
Mm-hmm
32:22
... I think our attention span get even less.
32:26
It's true.
32:28
Mm-hmm.
32:29
Mm-hmm.
32:31
So like you say, we really have to embrace the technology,
32:34
but make sure you use it in a
32:38
productive,
32:40
good, positive way.
32:42
Mm-hmm.
32:43
And don't become lazy either, because
32:46
I'm afraid of that sometimes with AI.
32:51
I
32:52
want to think for myself as well. Don't
32:56
ask AI, "Oh, what could I do for my next session?"
33:00
Mm-hmm.
33:00
I want to think a little bit, because otherwise we're going to depend on it too
33:04
much.
33:05
Mm-hmm.
33:06
I'm afraid of that personally, that I'm becoming
33:09
like, do what the robot
33:13
tells me.
33:17
Such things. But okay, we're going into another
33:20
direction now. Now we're talking AI and relationships with AI
33:24
instead of relations between persons, which I find more interesting,
33:28
more real.
33:30
Mm-hmm.
33:31
Like these online meetings you have now on Sundays, those are
33:35
online. Do you also notice that when you have offline meetings
33:39
and meet people for real, that there is a huge difference in how
33:43
people interact with each other,
33:45
and if people also learn much more
33:48
between online and offline courses and workshops and
33:52
presentations?
33:55
I have a feeling that when you do these things in
33:59
present, like when it is really the
34:03
live class,
34:06
it is more alive, of course. Not only live, it's alive
34:10
because
34:12
people are physically there. You can communicate, you
34:16
can have another connection.
34:20
It's somehow
34:23
a relationship, let's say, which also exists
34:26
and gets started between the people, the participants
34:30
somehow, and which is
34:34
different than when you have the online class, for sure.
34:38
If you meet online, then
34:43
the things are
34:45
different, let's say. Mm-hmm.
34:48
What I'm feeling as well is the attention span is just gone.
34:52
Mm-hmm.
34:53
It's so much easier to be distracted when things are
34:57
online. Unless the topic or something's being said that's
35:01
really captivating for some people, then they're like-
35:04
Mm-hmm
35:04
... then time flies by. They're really there. They're present.
35:08
Uh-huh.
35:09
When your whole body is at the
35:13
place where the class is-
35:15
Mm-hmm
35:16
... you can't be distracted.
35:20
Everybody is in the same environment, the same energy.
35:25
But when you're online-
35:27
Mm-hmm
35:28
...
35:29
it's like the
35:31
energy from the room you are in is different than the energy that
35:35
the presenter tries to
35:38
present. It's like it's not coming across the screen.
35:41
Mm-hmm.
35:42
So that's why interesting with people that are doing sort of
35:45
healing sessions online and everything else, and things
35:49
that I would say, "Hmm, how does this work
35:53
online?"
35:54
Mm-hmm.
35:54
When you're not in the same room together, how can you create that
35:58
same atmosphere, that same energy from a little screen-
36:02
Mm-hmm
36:03
... instead of being there in presence and really feel
36:07
people's heart energy when they connect to each other.
36:11
Mm-hmm.
36:11
Which is something that people recognize when we do group
36:15
meditations offline.
36:17
Mm-hmm.
36:18
They say, "Oh, yeah, but I do sometimes online group meditations." And that's
36:21
fine.
36:23
"Nice. Do you like it?" "Yeah. Yeah." And then we do a session offline
36:26
together, only with maybe six or eight people, and like, "Oh,
36:30
wow."
36:31
Mm-hmm.
36:32
Yeah, because it's different. Your whole being is-
36:35
Mm
36:36
... in the meditation together with the other people, and you all strengthen each
36:39
other with your heart's electromagnetic field, and I'll explain about that
36:43
then.
36:44
And so
36:47
online, nice for short information,
36:51
easy to understand, but when you really want to go in-depth and really
36:55
learn something, I would say there's
36:58
nothing better than meeting-
37:00
Mm-hmm
37:01
... in person-
37:02
Mm-hmm
37:03
... and be together and not only hear
37:07
the information or see the information, but also be able to feel it.
37:10
Mm-hmm.
37:12
Do you think about that?
37:16
Of course, it's also very different.
37:19
It's a good point that you're talking about, and
37:24
yeah. So it's of course, visible to see. Mm-hmm.
37:31
I want to
37:32
sum things up.
37:34
Last time we talked about your project in Uganda-
37:37
Mm-hmm
37:38
... and how much we can learn from the people there.
37:42
Mm-hmm.
37:42
And
37:43
my guess is they kind of live
37:47
in how we would live with less technology-
37:50
Mm-hmm
37:50
... right? So there you explained, and
37:54
people that are curious now really go and
37:58
look back at that episode that we had
38:00
then. We can
38:04
learn a lot, I guess, from them when it comes to relationships and
38:08
respect and socializing.
38:12
Is that your experience as well?
38:14
Yes.
38:15
Mm.
38:15
We can
38:16
learn a lot.
38:17
It's interesting that you are coming back to this topic.
38:20
I just had, during this week,
38:24
even in the morning, before I left the house, I had these
38:27
thoughts in my mind, and I was thinking the time when I was
38:31
in Africa, it was really, I think, the deepest time in my
38:35
life.
38:37
Very deep, not because it was all the time pleasant
38:41
and
38:43
because we had to face a lot of challenges.
38:47
Really very deep difficulties
38:51
in one moment, but in the same moment, you saw how people
38:54
are living together, how they are moving together,
38:58
and that there is really... They have the
39:01
families around, they have the friends around.
39:06
They stick somehow together and
39:10
physically even because they don't have this technology,
39:14
most of them, because they don't have the money for it,
39:18
and as well, the network is poor,
39:22
different situations.
39:25
But the life is so different really when you have
39:29
not this technical
39:31
equipment, what we have,
39:34
and when you need to find a solution,
39:37
from your resources somehow. When you need to
39:40
believe, when you have to trust on the other people,
39:45
when you have to solve situations together
39:48
and really overcome challenges,
39:52
things that we even cannot imagine here in our life because
39:56
we have a very modern life. Our countries, they are
40:00
well-developed and
40:03
a very different life. I always tell, it's like the
40:07
life on another planet already. Not another world, it's another
40:11
planet.
40:12
But in the same moment,
40:16
you see how satisfied the people are.
40:19
Mm.
40:20
They are happy.
40:21
They are singing, they are dancing, even they don't have food to eat, and
40:25
for us, it is not possible to imagine.
40:29
When you look in your life,
40:31
when you see that something is missing,
40:34
the first thing is we start complaining about it.
40:38
Mm.
40:38
We are not happy about it. We are sad
40:44
already.
40:45
Sometimes it is that the life
40:48
breaks in parts because people, they don't
40:52
have
40:52
what
41:00
they
41:01
need, and then these things are upside down.
41:05
But really, when you are facing situations in Africa, it is very
41:09
different.
41:11
For us, let's say for 99% of the people here in
41:15
our Western world, not possible to imagine.
41:20
There is this UN
41:23
report about the
41:27
happiest countries in the world that I always get so a little bit frustrated
41:31
about because they are the richest countries that
41:35
are the happiest. I
41:37
tend to differ.
41:40
The happiest countries are the countries that aren't the richest.
41:42
The happiest countries are the countries where people have strong relationships
41:46
with each other, where there's a community.
41:48
Mm-hmm.
41:49
And
41:51
when you talk about Uganda and how their
41:55
relationships are with each other, they depend on each other.
41:58
They depend on their communities, and everybody is worth something.
42:03
Nobody is alone. We all stand in it together, whatever happens,
42:07
good or bad, and they are so happy about their
42:11
relationships and the way things are.
42:13
Of course, they are poor. They miss some things, but they have their
42:17
relationships, and they are so happy about it that they can dance and sing
42:21
even if there is poverty.
42:24
Yeah.
42:24
What actually is poverty, then?
42:28
It's not based on money.
42:31
No.
42:32
I sometimes regret that I have so much. I have so much stuff.
42:37
Big house. Luckily not two cars, but it's
42:40
likeThe more you have, the more trouble,
42:44
the more you have to take care of, the more you have to make sure things
42:47
work, et cetera, with technology as well.
42:50
And it's like, ah,
42:52
when people go to a retreat, when they have nothing for a couple of days,
42:56
how
42:58
more you get to yourself again and feel how it is to be a
43:02
real human being
43:04
and make connections with other people.
43:07
I guess that's
43:11
feeling rich.
43:12
Mm-hmm.
43:13
I guess. I think people should get back to that, that we
43:17
become more happy and more rich and more fulfilled in life
43:21
when we are not only happy with ourselves, but also in our
43:25
relationships with others, that we can feel
43:28
comfortable around each other-
43:30
Mm-hmm
43:31
... don't have to fear each other,
43:33
can
43:36
have a normal conversation about things you don't like or like, or
43:40
yeah.
43:41
Mm-hmm.
43:41
Just a community.
43:44
Mm-hmm.
43:44
It's true. Yeah, it's true. What I realized, for
43:47
example,
43:49
it's a very beautiful example. When I came my first time
43:53
to Africa, to Uganda,
43:56
for me, it was a shock when you cannot use your technical
43:59
things as usual, and especially, of course, when people don't have the
44:03
experience there. Can you imagine that for people, it's not
44:07
common to have an email address?
44:09
Mm-hmm.
44:10
It's not common that they know a computer.
44:13
No.
44:14
And so you are really coming in another world, and you have
44:18
to be,
44:21
how to say, adapted to the situation as well.
44:25
It really takes time that you are managing with the situation
44:29
because our life is different,
44:33
and then you see how they are living.
44:35
Like, when there are
44:38
challenges, they tell, "Okay, let's meet." We sit together, we speak
44:42
about the situation, we solve it, and it doesn't matter if it
44:46
is in the community of the help of children, for
44:50
example. It holds you, I'm connected as well to the
44:54
orphans to help them to give a future,
44:57
and even the families
45:01
around. When you see families and they have problems,
45:05
they are going to meet, they sit together, they discuss the problem,
45:09
and they solve it.
45:11
And it's so different. You see that they are
45:15
very deeply connected to each other.
45:18
It does not mean everything is in peace and harmony.
45:21
Very often, they even have trouble.
45:23
They
45:24
loud discussion.
45:26
That's normal. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
45:27
But at the end, the things are solving-
45:31
Right
45:31
... and these people, they're getting more close, like the relationship gets
45:35
more strengthened.
45:37
And
45:38
yeah, it's somehow different than our online life, what we have
45:42
here right now.
45:43
Very different.
45:45
Yeah. And the trend of behaving in
45:49
real life more online, like canceling because of...
45:53
Yeah, that sort of thing. Okay. Again, we can
45:57
learn so much from
45:59
the people from Uganda, and I guess other countries as well, like South
46:04
America, have similar types of
46:07
cultures and communities where they don't
46:11
have the richness of
46:14
electronics or a lot of that sort of stuff, but they have the
46:18
richness of the community they live in,
46:21
their relationships. Wonderful.
46:25
Okay. I want to wrap it up. Thank you so much,
46:29
Christina,
46:31
and for those that are still with us, thank you for joining us
46:35
all the way to the end.
46:37
I hope you learned a lot from what Christina had to
46:41
tell, and remember that every Sunday on
46:44
Zoom,
46:46
her organization, Way to Yourself, has an online meeting.
46:50
So
46:51
look at the comments below somewhere of this video, and you will get to know
46:55
how to contact Christina and register for this meeting.
46:59
So it's about ancient... Is it this Sunday only about
47:02
ancient Tibetan
47:05
relaxation-
47:05
No, every week
47:06
... or it is just a general topic?
47:09
We do it every week.
47:11
Mm-hmm.
47:11
It's basically some session of the relaxation,
47:16
the ancient Tibetan relaxation, really to recover the
47:19
whole system, the whole body.
47:23
And
47:24
as well, those who are coming regularly,
47:28
they will see the difference, that it really
47:32
affects their body and our mind as well in a
47:36
positive way.
47:38
And
47:39
we also have the offline classes, of course, but
47:43
we can give the individual
47:47
appointments then. Mm-hmm.
47:50
Okay, great. Well, at least for those that are listening and watching, check
47:54
it out, and also go back to halfway
47:58
in March to episode 311 of this podcast,
48:02
where you can learn more about Christina's
48:05
organization, Way to Yourself, and all she has done in
48:09
Uganda and how much we can learn from people from Uganda as
48:13
well. Okay. Thank you so much, everyone.
48:16
I hope to see you back next time. Take good care. Namaste.
48:21
Thank you so, so much for this
48:24
session, for our meeting, and I'm looking forward to see you
48:28
all again.
48:30
Wonderful. Thank you so much.